KPIs 101: What to Measure?
Part 2: What to Measure?
Part 3: Bootstrapping: Data Collection and Warehousing
Part 4: The (Im)Perfect Dashboard
In the previous article, we talked about how we aim. This article is dedicated to the next steps. What do we measure?
Goal Setting: Pro-active vs. Reactive Approach
Let's take a little recap. Our goal was we wanted to read more books. We went from an abstract goal "I want to read 100 books" and worked our way through to bring more context. The context embedded within the goal enables you to stay focused. As you make progress, you become susceptible to losing sight of why you started in the first place.
Yes, you most definitely should make regular reviews to ensure you are moving in the right direction. But the problem is being too agile. The key is to spend more brainpower and time on stipulating your goals vs. tweaking them afterward (I'm going to go out on a limb and say make it a 70%-30% split).
Measuring What Matters
Okay back to the goal. Here's what we decided:
I want to read because I want to grow and unwind. I can achieve this by doing the following: Learning new words, consuming more creative content, consuming more domain-specific content and increase my speed.
Okay awesome. Time to settle on what genre really resonate with our requriement. This helps us hit the bullseye. Since our objective is reading we are not limited to books. There's articles, news, magazines, fan-fic and what not. That's a lot of options, exactly what we are running from. We want clarity and to be as specific as humanly possible.
Time to roll up our mental sleeves and do some brain-labor (read: introspection).
Defining Scope
Reviewing our goal, we can split our two main outcome that encapsulate our goal:
Reading to Grow
The definition of growth varies. Your circumstances will carve the meaning for you. Your social, financial, physical and mental capacity will define what kind of growth you seek and what efforts are you able to put into it. Same goes for if you're building KPIs for your company. Your resources, assets, human capital and industry influence your goals and set its tracjectory.
I want you to think. That's what makes you human. You are the only one who has lived your circumstances (or run your business). Your dreams, the sleeping and the waking, your wishes and wistful thoughts. It is achievable, trust me.
(Man I was just here for KPI setting, when did the Philosophy 101 start?)
The precursor to setting the right goal is contextual awareness. And that comes from putting in some thoughts. So seek and ye shall find.
Back to defining growth; for me growth is expansion of knowledge. Professionally, it is moving upward. Stronger network, validation of my skills. How can reading help? Keeping in mind my diversity of interests, here's what I think would contribute towards "Reading to Grow":
God, there's so much I can do instead of binge-watching Law & Order.
Keeping in mind my own scope of growth and understanding my own shortcomings here's what works for me:
领英推荐
Despite a strong quant-background, politics doesn't appeal to me. The only form of informative journalism that appeals to me is the one Morning Brew has to offer. Since I don't have an actual accreditation so far, CPD adds little value and not much to show for it. Hence my choices.
Reading to Unwind
Balance. All work and no fun and you'll give up faster than you think. That's where the unwinding comes in. Reading to kick back and relax. Reading solely to absolve your existence into a world outside your own. The fun of reading. Here's what it could mean to you:
*if you're a fashion guru or an aspiring chef, some of these would may be more about growth than unwinding. So to each their own.
Here's what works for me:
I want something well-written, therefore I personally prefer best-seller novels over fac-fic. Comics are good storytelling, but I'd rather give my brain the freedom to figure out what it means when it says "the expression on his face went dark" or "the sky was a thirsty shade of red" than have visuals in front of me. That's why of all the options, I picked what I picked. Of course, for you, pick what works for you.
Recap: What to Measure?
I know it feels like a lot for simply wanting to read more often. What I am trying to convey here is an approach. If you're a consultant being asked to derive KPIs for the business, these steps help you design KPIs that aren't simply off-the-shelf options. But rather customized to the values, constraints and vision of the business.
In essence what we have done so far is:
In the next article, we will set up points to capture data. Stay tuned!
Nuances: Can I Ever Be Too Data-Driven?
What people often forget when setting goals and constructing KPIs, is that it is very easy to be hyper-focused on what the numbers are telling you. You are managing humans (if you're a business, else you're managing yourself, also a human). Being too fixated on how to improve the numbers is a surefire way to lose in the long-run.
Harvard University in its course on Resilient Leadership talks about managing the energy of a team. Where you want to get to is important. But if you are simply exhausting the resources that are supposed to take you there (burned-out team or your own self), forget getting there on time, you won't get there in one piece. And that's not a cost worth paying.
It is easy to get swept away by how everyone is doing far better and faster than you. They have carved their own paths. Yes, the grass always seems greener on the other side. But don't forget, when you are looking around, you don't always see the grass you're standing on nor the lush gardens you've spent your existence nurturing and maintaining thus far. You are capable of doing wonders. However, learn to take a break and celebrate. Don't lose the very thing that makes you human.
If you are a small company starting out and need help to be more data-driven, get in touch here.
. If you enjoyed the post so much that you've decided to boost my productivity through caffeine, head here.